Wild rainbow... and more.

[BrooksAndHooks]

Thought I would share a few pictures with you guys for fun. Caught my first wild rainbow this year. This stream is primarily native brook trout, but I have also caught one wild brown so far (and lost another potential wild, definitely a brown). It is pretty amazing the variety of fish that can be found in what many of you would consider a very small stream.

 

[dc410]

Congrats B&H! They sure are some beautiful fish. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[raftman]

Beautiful.

 

[djs12354]

Nice!

 

[steveo27]

Awesome

 

[ryansheehan]

Those colors are stunning!

 

[J55tyger88]

Those colors are stunning...number 1 is like, whoa

 

[laszlo]

Nice fish, great pictures. That rainbow even smiled for you.

 

[GenCon]

Wow congrats, those are some beautiful fish.

GenCon

 

[Longbow]

I also caught a couple small wild rainbows this year and they sure are beautiful!

 

[JF_]

great pics, thanks......

 

[REDNECK_FLYFISHER]

Congrats on some great catches. Great pics also. Small stream fishing for natives, my type of fishing.

 

[McSneek]

Aaahhhh...gemmies!

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Thanks for all the comments guys. Yes, a few gemmies in there. I have caught some nice sized fish in the same stream, these were just some good looking fish. I have caught a few 10"+ brookies in there, rather large for the area, and one fish in the 12-14" range. I also caught a large holdover rainbow earlier this year, and lost a 15"+ brown at the net in this stream. I have a decent drive for good sized water so I do a good amount of small stream fishing when I only have a short amount of time to get out.

The little wild bow fought like a 12"+ wild fish, and actually tried to run off on me. Surprising for such a tiny fish. The brown literally came out of the water on my lap when I set the hook. A real gem sized brown there hahaha. The rainbow was sure pretty, I have caught some nice looking bows before, but never one with all the spots and parrs to the point this guy did.

Here is a shot of some bigger brooks and the holdover bow that got in there somehow.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

Pics:

 

[mikesl]

GREAT pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[pcray1231]

That bow sure is perty.

Most of the wild bows I've caught are actually on the ugly side (silver) compared to stocked fish.

 

[BrooksAndHooks]

I'm sure I have caught more before at one point or another, but it's really hard to tell to be sure unless you're in a specific watershed. I've caught them places I did not expect, colored up, but I usually believe them to be holdovers. With this guy there was no doubt with the small size, color, and markings. I catch a lot of ugly bows, and a lot of pretty stockers out of streams with good water too haha.

 

Those are gems! Nice catches!